QUETTA: Balochistan, which lags behind other provinces in terms of development, is going to have an air ambulance service soon, according to health department officials.

Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has decided to start ‘Peoples Air Ambulance Service’ as soon as possible to facilitate critically patients in need of immediate transfer to hospitals, health officials told Dawn on Monday.

“With the launch of air ambulance, patients can be transferred to major hospitals across the country, including Quetta, on an emergency basis,” the officials quoted Mr Bugti as saying during a meeting at CM House.

According to sources, it has been decided that instead of purchasing a new air-ambulance, which will cost the exchequer a fortune, one of the two aircraft of the provincial government will be converted into the air-ambulance equipped with all the latest facilities.

“Earlier, the government wanted to sell out the old aircraft and offers were invited through advertisements published in newspapers,” a senior government official told Dawn.

During the previous government headed by Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, the aircraft used by the governor and chief minister had been utilised many times for shifting of seriously ill patients from far-flung areas to Quetta and Karachi for treatment.

The plane was also used for air-dropping food and relief goods in the flood-hit areas of Balochistan in 2022.

CM Bugti said that efforts would be made to improve service delivery in all sectors, including health, adding that substantial results can be achieved by changing the decision-making priorities.

He said the provincial government had been working hard to provide quality medical facilities to the poor by bringing extraordinary reforms in the health sector.

Published in Dawn, April 23nd, 2024